Immigrant Mothers Make Tearful Pleas To Stay In U.S. With Kids

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Immigration officials Wednesday granted an extension to one mother, but ordered another mother out of the county.

A 14-year-old boy made a tearful plea to stop his mother’s deportation, just a few days before Mother’s Day.

The mother of two, identified only as Carmen, had lived in the U.S. for 22 years.

She was booked on a flight back to her native country of Peru the following three weeks and was ordered to where an ankle bracelet, so she could be monitored by Immigration officials at all times.

“I feel like depressed, nervous, sometimes scared, because I’m afraid like every Thursday my mom has to go report herself to ICE. And I’m afraid like she isn’t going to come back or something,” said Carmen’s 14-year-old son, Brian.

Speaking Spanish, Carmen begged Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to allow her to remain in the U.S. with her children, who are citizens.

Her attorneys acknowledged that she did make two mistakes — running from ICE agents when they raided her home last year and then lying to them.

But they argued that she had already been detained for eight months and that ICE agents should be focusing on criminals, not mothers.

“What’s going to happen to this class of children that are staying behind to be taken care of by other family members and do not have their parents here to take care of them,” said immigration attorney Jessica Dominguez.

A second mother, who had already been ordered to go back to Mexico pleaded to stay as well.

Maria, a mother of four, including a son with special needs, delivered a final request to Immigration in downtown L.A.

“ICE will not typically detain individuals who are primary caretakers of children unless the individual is legally subjected to mandatory detention based on the severity of their criminal or immigration history,” ICE spokesperson, Virginia Kice said in a released statement.

“If she does have to leave, well I guess that I’m going to have to go with her, even though I don’t want to. Because I don’t want to lose her, I want to be next to her, step by step,” Brian said.

ICE confirmed that Carmen would have to go back to Peru the following month.

However, they decided to grant a one-year stay to the other mother, Maria, giving her more time to fight her deportation.